The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

SPIRO: The Wallabies can't be winners playing well for only 60 minutes

28th September, 2014
Advertisement
Rugby fans will likely never know the full story behind Ewen McKenzie's resignation. (AAP Image/ Dave Hunt)
Expert
28th September, 2014
297
7393 Reads

The most telling comment to come out of the Springboks’ relentless victory over the Wallabies at the fabled Newlands stadium came from an exhausted Michael Hooper: “We couldn’t keep up with them.”

The Springboks smashed home three tries in the last 10 minutes of the Test, with an earlier drop goal by Pat Lambie to take the score to 11-10 in their favour, the points margin expanded into a comfortable and impressive 28-10.

The score line was 10-5 in favour of the Wallabies at half-time. The final result meant that the Springboks piled on 23 unanswered points in the second half.

This leads me to an inevitable and obvious conclusion: the Wallabies are not fit enough for Test match rugby against powerful and committed sides like the Springboks.

I must say I was amazed that after the debacle at Eden Park, coach Ewen Mckenzie allowed the players some time off before getting together again for the South African and Argentina legs of the Rugby Championship.

The players, in my opinion, should have been taken into a camp as soon as they got back from Auckland. A ferocious trainer should have put them through a series of torture sessions. Then they should have travelled to South Africa about nine days before the Test at Cape Town.

For too long the Wallabies (and the Waratahs for that matter, too) have been treated too leniently by their coaches. Michael Cheika turned around the Waratahs by getting them fit. McKenzie needs to do the same or step down and allow Cheika to do with the Wallabies – the Coogee Steps and all of that – what he has done for the Waratahs.

This system was pioneered in Australia by its greatest coach, Rod Macqueen. Macqueen used a former Broncos trainer to get his Wallabies fit. The first sessions saw the players vomiting and passing out but slowly and then quickly they became the fittest team in world rugby.

Advertisement

When you are fit you tend to make better decisions than when you are physically and then mentally tired. Macqueen’s fit Wallabies were also the smartest team in world rugby, a title that is now held by the super fit All Blacks. And if this Test is any indication, the Springboks are coming into calculations as a very fit and, therefore, very dangerous side to any opponent.

The statistics of the Test read as a mirror image of a usual Wallabies versus Springboks Test. The Springboks beat the Wallabies at their own ball-in-hand game.

Springboks Wallabies
Tries 4 1
Metres gained 465 355
Carries 180 127
Passes 194 161
Turnovers conceded 19 14
Kicks in general play 28 24
Penalties conceded 4 13

They did concede more turnovers than the Wallabies. But the significant penalty count against the Wallabies was a more telling statistic. You can’t win tough Test matches and concede nine penalties more than the opposition.This last statistic on the penalties is interesting. Very few teams can get through a Test, with this much action in it, and concede so few penalties. The Springboks have a special coach for their breakdown and rucks play. This seems to be working well for them.

The other interesting aspect of the statistics is that the Springboks are slowly, with two gifted playmakers, Andre Pollard and Pat Lambie, getting a better balance between their traditional kicking and chasing game and a ball-in-hand game.

When they get the balance right, or if they get it right, they are going to be a formidable challenge for the All Blacks and England (the two favourites I’d guess) in next year’s Rugby World Cup tournament.

Since professional rugby was introduced in 1996, the Wallabies and the Springboks have now played each other in the various forms of the Tri-Nations and Rugby Championship 42 times. The Springboks have won 21 of these Tests and the Wallabies 20, with one Test drawn.

Advertisement

The Springboks tend to win their home Tests, as do the Wallabies. This year follows that pattern with the Wallabies winning a close result 24-23 at Perth and then losing at the hoodoo venue in Cape Town 28-10.

The last time the Wallabies defeated the Springboks at Newlands in Cape Town was in 1992. The fast start on Saturday night by the Wallabies had the crowd quiet initially. But the Newlands roar was in full voice at the end, and rightly so.

Where do the Wallabies go from here?

They are unbeaten at home this season. Good. And this includes a draw against the All Blacks. But they have conceded four tries or more in their two Tests out of Australia, against the All Blacks and the Springboks.

A win against the Pumas next weekend becomes essential to give the Wallabies some momentum going into the crucial November tour of Europe, the last trial run there before the Rugby World Cup tournament.

Does McKenzie now make some significant changes looking to next year? Or does he keep the bulk of the team that has been handsomely defeated by the All Blacks and the Springboks?

The time to make changes, is right now. The configuration of players McKenzie put on the field in the last two Tests won’t win the Wallabies a World Cup. They are in the pool of death remember, with England and Wales challenging them for the two finals spots.

Advertisement

Is it time to move Israel Folau to the wing and bring in Kurtley Beale at fullback? What is the future, if any, of Matt Toomua in the backline? Would Rob Horne fit in better at inside centre?

When will Will Genia be given his starting position at halfback? What is the best front row? What is the best second row? Who should play number 8?

I must say that I was taken with Scott Allen’s suggestion that a loose trio of Michael Hooper, Matt Hodgson and Scott Higginbotham would be an interesting selection for the Wallabies.

The Chinese have a saying: ‘May you live in interesting times’. This is certainly the case for Ewen McKenzie and for Wallaby supporters.

The point about the Pumas, as they showed in a spirited Test with the All Blacks, is that they are very close to achieving a win in the Rugby Championship. They gave the Springboks two very hard Tests in South Africa and in Argentina.

The All Blacks were held to four tries, after a tremendous opening onslaught. When they had the ball, the Pumas made serious inroads.

Here are the statistics:

Advertisement
All Blacks Pumas
Metres gained 480 481
Carries 102 119
Passes 158 136
Offloads 13 21
Kicks in play 21 19
Penalties conceded 11 11

On these statistics, I’d say: Watch out Wallabies next weekend against the Pumas.

close